Death of a Monster
by Lecos
Summary: The great gates of the Village Hidden in the Leaves have been crushed by rock and stone. But in war, not even winners remain unscathed.


Thanks go to Payce D. Elui, Lady Kyuri, and Nemrut for helping me edit this.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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"Don't you die on me, man," I say, bending over the body to examine him. He isn't really a man, to call him a ferocious beast would make him flush. If he could flush, that is. He is a bear, with thick and dark brown fur, a black nose, black eyes and light paws. Big paws. Everything about him is big; standing upright he would be twice my size.

Would be, are the key words. He is lying down on his side right now and pants, irregular, fast, heavy. I have heard it before with humans. They breathe that way when they are suffering. Not that loud, of course, and with less saliva flowing out of the corner of their mouths.

I have no painkillers left; have been issued only two to begin with. Both are circulating through his body.

There are no wounds; a tiny stream of blood mixes with the saliva from time to time but apart from that there is nothing. Something inside, then. Inside always scares the shit out of me. You can't see what hurts him, can't ease the pain and stop the bleeding like you do with normal wounds.

He gasps, coughs and spits out more blood. An inhuman groan follows.

"Medic!" I yell again. Third time? Fourth?

He still suffers. Ryu, my comrade-in-arms. He has been with me from the very beginning of this campaign, hell, even before that. Since long before that. It isn't fair that he won't see the end of it, won't see the Hokage's Tower burn and crumble. Two kilometres further and he would have.

Raised as a woodsman, I met him in my early days, when I was still a young lad who knew nothing of the world, of death or talking animals. He kept me company after nightfall when I was out on hunting trips, and he helped me govern the forest before I decided to take up the path of shinobi.

Even then, he still supported me. Ryu didn't need to train for that, nature had already provided more than necessary and so we went hunting again. The prey was the only thing to change.

I try to lay one of his arms around me and drag him out of the town to the clearing station beyond the siege line. They will be able to help him there, for sure. But he is heavy; a few inches is all I can manage at a time. I have to stop when something moves through the ruins behind me. It had been a two-storey house once, now it had burned down and only the charred foundation remains. Most of the village looks like that. Two days of constant bombardment have that effect.

The rubble shifts again. I have a kunai drawn and stand between the ruin and Ryu. I forget about the passcodes we have been given to use in situations like this and am in the middle of throwing when another bear rumbles through the debris, smashing old planks aside. I yank my arm to the left, and the kunai goes wide.

The passcodes wouldn't have helped anyways; this one doesn't understand the human language. He sticks to Ryu and myself nevertheless. I never manage to get anything out of him regarding their relationship, but it seems like some sort of apprenticeship. Just without talking.

Now he approaches, on all fours. He sniffs. I can hear how he sucks in air, the nostrils opening wide every time. Steady, one paw after the other. A sidestep to the left is followed by one to the right. Still the sniffing.

Then he dashes towards us, brushes me aside and bends over Ryu. The sniffing begins anew, his nose touches the dark brown fur from time to time, almost seems locked in place for some seconds just to move on again. After a while, the bear lies down, whimpering quietly.

Finally, a passing squad's medic halts next to us. He looks at me, Ryu, the other bear, and back to Ryu. The man steps forward and kneels down, inspecting the body. My second companion lifts his head a fraction, to growl at the newcomer. The medic doesn't seem to mind. I still put my hand in a firm squeeze on the animal's neck to shut him up. It works.

We wait. The sound of fighting carries over. Clashes of metal against metal are the most common noises after the catapults have gone silent, only the occasional rumbling of a collapsing house mixes in. Rarely, a crackle of lightning, a blazing jet of fire, or other elemental jutsu can be heard, but the bulk of shinobi are running low on chakra by now.

The medic leans back, away from Ryu, and shoots me one of these looks only doctors can. I know he doesn't lie. Bears like Ryu are considered valuable assets, their close-combat capabilities, if honed, far exceed that of an average shinobi.

Accepting and liking the idea are two different things, though, so when he pulls out a syringe, I flinch. His gaze is still on me and I nod.

The mute bear acts up again as soon as the syringe is lowering, and only by shifting all my bodyweight on the hand that's still pressing down on his neck I manage to keep him in check. I sure wouldn't be able to handle him if he was actually trying seriously.

It only takes half a minute, and Ryu's body relaxes completely.

The medic remains kneeling for a moment longer, but there is still a fight to be won just some minutes away from us. I stand up, staggering only a bit. The bear will watch over Ryu's body, but I can't stay any longer. When the next squad passes, the medic and I tune in to their speed. One of them turns to us, to the scene we are already leaving behind, and then faces forward again without uttering a word.

"The first of these white-eyed bastards we meet is mine."

It takes me a second to realise that it has been my own voice. No one argues. In hindsight, I agree with myself. I will make them pay.

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Thanks for reading.


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